John Barrasso

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Montana (Mr. Daines) and the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Paul).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Montana (Mr. Daines).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3424, which is at the desk. The clerk will report the bill by title.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendments be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 271, S. 1884.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent that all time on Calendar No. 203, S.J. Res. 82, be expired, and at a time to be determined by the majority leader, in consultation with the Democratic leader, no later than Friday, December 19, the joint resolution be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of the joint resolution notwithstanding rule XXII.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of Senators Cantwell and Markey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 2584 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent that the Cornyn substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 9:30 a.m., Thursday, December 11; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 285, S. 3386; further, notwithstanding rule XXII, the cloture motions filed during Tuesday's session ripen at 11:30 a.m., and following the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 284, S. 3385, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of Executive Calendar No. 4, S. Res. 532; finally, I ask that the postcloture time be expired, the Senate vote on adoption of the resolution, and if adopted, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the Senate resume legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I just heard the minority leader come to the floor and talk about our Republican plan for healthcare, and he called it ``insulting.'' What is insulting is that the minority leader and the Democrats want to send $83 billion of taxpayer money directly from the Treasury of the United States to health insurance corporations that continue to get rich off of ObamaCare. That is insulting to the American people. That is a program that is riddled--riddled--with fraud. That is what they want, these COVID bonus programs put forth by Joe Biden. They want to just--3 more years, more direct checks to insurance companies, taxpayer money with no accountability. So how bad are these programs? Well, let's just take a look at the headlines. Monday's Wall Street Journal: ``ObamaCare Is a Mecca for Fraud.'' The Democrats must be in favor of all this fraud because that is what they want to do. They want to continue it for 83 billion more dollars. What about the Washington Post? This is yesterday's Washington Post: ``Obamacare subsidies make it too easy to scam the system.'' That is what the Democrats appear to be wanting to do, continuing to put money--$83 billion--into a system that even the Washington Post said is easy to scam. Is that what the American people want? That is insulting to the American people. So tomorrow the Democrats are going to come here, and they are going to line up, one after another, and vote to send another $83 billion directly from the Federal Treasury of the United States to insurance companies--$83 billion to a program that is designed to be defrauded. So how bad is the fraud? Well, the Government Accountability Office tested whether the ObamaCare system would catch fraud. Good for them. So they made up and submitted 24 fake applications for ObamaCare. Yes. That is right--fake applications, fake information, make it up, make all the information up, and 23 of the 24 of the ObamaCare applications were approved. They were accepted and qualified to receive the subsidies. They were fake. That is why even the Washington Post says that fraud is on the way. They all received taxpayer-funded healthcare subsidies paid by the Federal Government. It is insulting to taxpayers that that is the best the Democrats can do, that that is what the Democrats offer. Eighteen of the twenty-four fake enrollees--this is even worse--were still receiving taxpayer-funded subsidies as recently as September. Now, remember, September--the month of September, end of September-- that is when the Democrats shut down the government of the United States. Why? Because of these COVID bonus payments from the Biden administration. That is insulting. Those subsidies were paid directly from the government to the insurance companies. The insurance companies, just for those 18 of the 24, received over $100,000 for these 18 fake applications--right from the government, not to the people, not so the people can see, did this go to a real person. No. Government. Insurance company. Insurance companies get rich. Democrats love it. Nobody gets to see what is going on, and premiums have gone up 221 percent since ObamaCare passed. And remember Obama saying your premiums would go down by $2,500 if you just passed his law? I just told you what happened with 18 of 24 for $100,000. Remember, there are 20 million people on ObamaCare today receiving government subsidies. When you take a look at that level of fraud happening across the board, imagine how much taxpayer money is being wasted or stolen. The losses to the taxpayers is staggering. And that, I would say to the minority leader who came here and talked about the Republican proposal being insulting, is insulting. And then these fake applications that were approved without any income verification--the law says you have got to verify somebody's income. Under the law, the amount of money that a person would get, in terms of bonuses, is supposed to be based on income. In one case, the fake applicant's income, according to ObamaCare officials who worked out the system, it was confirmed, they said, because of documentation. That is what they said: Based on documentation, it was approved. The people that made up the fake applications never provided any documentation at all. That is insulting to taxpayers. In another case, the system never requested proof of citizenship. That is how we know, for a fact, that ObamaCare subsidies go to illegal immigrants. They don't ask if you are a citizen. It is easy for noncitizens to apply. Oh, investigators also found out that dead people were getting ObamaCare subsidies. The Democrats don't care about any of that. That is insulting to taxpayers. Mr. President, 58,000 Social Security numbers that were linked to death records were used to receive subsidies. More than 7,000 Social Security numbers were used in enrollments after the date of that person's death, signing them up after they were dead. It is OK with the Democrats and the ObamaCare people, but not a single Republican voted for it. One Social Security number was used repeatedly to enroll people into ObamaCare policies, and the fraudsters used it 125 times. All together, investigators, through the Government Accountability Office, discovered $21 billion lost to ObamaCare fraud. That is insulting. If Democrats were truly concerned about affordable healthcare, you would think that they would want to root out the waste and the fraud. Even the Washington Post says ``ObamaCare subsidies make it too easy to scam the system.'' Yet, every Democrat is going to come down here to the floor tomorrow and vote to continue the fraud. The Democrat bill sends $83 billion directly from the Federal Treasury to insurance companies, and it fails to include a single reform to stop the waste, the fraud, the abuse, or the corruption because Democrats simply don't care. Their fat-cat friends at the big insurance companies don't care either because they get paid directly from the government either way, and the Democrats want to send another $83 billion their way without a single reform. The more people they enroll--either real people or fake people--the more money the insurance companies pocket. Oh, and their fake enrollees, they are not filing medical claims so that is just more profit for the insurance companies. This, of course, is money from hard-working taxpayers. Stock prices of health insurance companies are up 500 to 1,000 percent since ObamaCare became law. Under Joe Biden, Democrats suspended ObamaCare income verification for 4 straight years. As a result, millionaires get subsidies. Today, millions pay nothing for their premiums. This is what is wrong with the healthcare that we have in this country right now under the Democrats, and they want to continue this without any change, without any credibility. In the minds of taxpayers, you say: You are going to continue to do this? How is that credible? It is irresponsible. It is insulting. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports 39 percent of the people who signed up for healthcare coverage on ObamaCare this year got health insurance, and they paid absolutely nothing for it--zero. Some of them may not even know they got it, but the money went to the insurance companies directly from the government. The American people are paying the price. The fraud has gotten so bad that last year, 200,000 people-- Americans--filed complaints with the Federal Government about their health insurance. And they filed complaints because they were unknowingly switched from one ObamaCare plan to another or from one plan to something different. They didn't even know it was happening, and that is the 200,000 that recognized it and complained to the government. Health insurance companies signed up these individuals for insurance plans they never even knew they got. But if an insurance company or somebody selling insurance gets a name, an identification number, Social Security, they can--these brokers get paid a bonus for signing up somebody new to the plan. The person is listed. Money goes to the insurance company because the person is cut out of it and doesn't know about. That is why we had 200,000 complaints to the Federal Government last year. It is fraud, plain and simple. The Democrats want to continue it for the next 3 years. Here is the truth about healthcare and insurance companies: If you don't stop fraud, the chronic high costs will never be cured. In fact, they are going to get worse. That is why Republicans passed this past summer strong, anti-fraud protections as part of our Working Families Tax Cut bill. Our reforms make it harder to cheat the system. Democrats don't like that. Every one of them voted against our bill this past summer to put in protections for taxpayers. Every Democrat voted no. What Republicans did was restored income verification. Democrats: Nope. We don't want to verify income. Send these subsidies to millionaires. You hear the Senator from New Hampshire--I am sorry--the Senator from Vermont down here talking about tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. They want to send subsidies for healthcare for millionaires and billionaires. He could make that much money this year. Keep sending them the subsidies. Now, people are going to need to verify their income when they reenroll, and we are going to require a full repayment when individuals have underreported their income in an effort to get higher subsidies because it is fraud. Every single Democrat voted against the fraud provisions. They voted against these protections that we had against the fraud. And now Democrats, with what they want to do for the next 3 years, want to make the fraud dramatically worse. This needs to end. The American people deserve the care they need from a doctor that they choose at a price they can afford. ObamaCare absolutely failed to deliver that. Republicans are committed to protecting taxpayers, committed to rooting out the waste, the fraud, the abuse, and the corruption that has become epidemic in ObamaCare. So when the minority leader comes to the floor and makes his statements and talks about the Republican proposal being insulting, I would tell you what the Democrats have foisted on the American people has been insulting; and the waste, fraud, and abuse that continues is a continued insult to American taxpayers. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Justice), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis), and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 483.

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to immediate consideration of Calendar No. 102, S. 414.

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito) and the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Justice).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Justice), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis), and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis) would have voted ``yea''.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Justice) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. McCormick).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I have four requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders. Pursuant to Rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, as I was coming to the floor today, I heard the minority leader Chuck Schumer talking about wanting to send more government checks to insurance companies. That is what he said he wants to do. He is going to have a vote on it later this week. He wants to extend 3 more years the checks Democrats say we ought to send to insurance companies. I disagree with them. When it comes to healthcare, American people deserve to have the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs, at a cost that they can afford. ObamaCare has done just the opposite. And today, ObamaCare is collapsing under its own weight. What are the Democrats trying to do? They are trying to prop it up with an additional $83 billion handed directly from the Federal Government to insurance companies. They want to send $83 billion directly from the Treasury into the bank accounts of the very profitable insurance companies that have been made more profitable under ObamaCare. Democrats want to use your money to cover up for their failures. That is what is happening here. So, this week, the Senate is going to vote on the Democrat plan to extend these Biden COVID bonuses for 3 more years with absolutely no reforms to a failing Obamacare program--no reforms, not one. What do we see with the program so far they had? It caused waste, fraud, and corruption. Rich people get subsidies; insurance companies get rich. They all like it. That is why the Democrats are for it. I practiced medicine in Wyoming for 24 years as an orthopedic surgeon. I was doing that before serving now in the U.S. Senate. I can tell you, these Biden COVID bonuses are a bad prescription because the side effects are so harmful: widespread fraud and corruption, direct payments to line the pockets of big insurance companies, taxpayer- subsidized healthcare for millionaires. That is right, millionaires. You can earn $1 million a year and still get subsidized handsomely by what the Democrats are proposing, and they are bringing it to the floor to be voted on this week. That is the solution the Democrats have, throw more government money at a problem that caused the problem in the first place. The people in my home State of Wyoming cannot continue to afford this endless drain that is ObamaCare. The Democrats saw ObamaCare was failing. They saw costs were getting high. They are trying to prop it up. They are trying to hide the failures. In 2021, they used their narrow partisan majority to try to prop it up even more with the Biden COVID bonuses. Those are on top of all the other subsidies that the Democrats were sending to the insurance companies. Well, not a single Republican voted for it. Remember, these are new subsidies on top of the already generous subsidies. And now they are for everybody. No matter how much money you make, you qualify for these subsidies. This was initially designed just to go for people that needed it, people that couldn't help themselves. But now, the sky is the limit. When does that happen? Oh, and by the way, Democrats said these will only be temporary. Don't worry. This is just because of COVID. But the following year, what did the Democrats do? They said: Well, ObamaCare is not in pretty good shape. We need to keep these going, this extra layer of subsidies. Keep them going. They set the deadline date for coming up the end of this month. Again, not a single Republican voted for it, not one. Now, what did Chuck Schumer say today? He wants to extend them for another 3 years, $83 billion. So calling these Biden COVID bonuses temporary was just another way for them to cover up the damage that ObamaCare is doing to the country. They are doing it for one reason: because ObamaCare is unaffordable. It is a failure. Premiums have risen over 220 percent since ObamaCare came along. What did Obama say? Premiums are going to go down by $2,500 a year for a family. I think that was called the ``lie of the year'' by the press who evaluated those things. Even the deductibles have doubled. Look, sending another $83 billion to insurance companies is not going to fix the failures of ObamaCare. And when you create direct payments to insurance companies that are this vast, no guardrails, predictable things will happen. No. 1 is, of course, the price of insurance will go up because there is more government money coming to it; and No. 2, fraud runs wild. That is right, absolute fraud. So the Government Accountability Office recently released a report that confirms it. In 2024 and 2025, the Government Accountability Office did something very revealing. They tried to figure out how easy it was to sign up for ObamaCare using fake information. Would fraudsters be caught if they submitted fake information under ObamaCare? In fact, GAO submitted 24 fake applications. It was intentional. They submitted them to the ObamaCare exchanges to see if, under the Democrats' program, these would actually be detected as fraudulent or if money would just flow from the Federal Government to those who submitted all these false papers. Would they get approved by the government or was there anything out there that would stop them? Well, 23 of the 24 fake applications were approved to qualify for ObamaCare subsidies. Money is going to go, fake applications, incompetent Federal Government--that is what the American people see. So the GAO dug deeper, and they found, when they checked Social Security numbers, that a single Social Security number was used for enrolling 125 different ObamaCare policies, all of which qualified for subsidies. Yes, those Democrats love sending the money out. That is the thing they do. GAO also found that 58,000 Social Security numbers that matched death records were also receiving subsidies. There they go. That is the way the Democrats roll. Democrats want to continue paying ObamaCare bonuses directly to insurance companies for signing up people with Social Security numbers of people that are dead. Let's be very clear: The money from the Biden COVID bonuses is never actually seen by the American people. It goes right from the Department of the Treasury, mainline to the insurance companies. Insurance companies have recorded record profits. Their stocks are up 500 to 1,000 percent since ObamaCare became law. Democrats created a system where insurance companies' profits are higher, and they go higher and higher the higher the premiums rise. So it is in their best interest to continue to raise premiums. As long as Democrats are willing to subsidize all that, that is what you are going to continue to get: a drain on the Federal Treasury, taxpayers being taken advantage of, insurance companies getting rich, and Democrats saying everything is fine when it is not. There are no cost controls. There are no incentives to compete on the insurance companies. Competition in healthcare basically collapsed in terms of the insurance markets and many rural counties, Mr. President, in your State and mine, there may be only one choice. It is a monopoly. That is what we are finding across Wyoming. Many families have only one choice for health insurance: Take it or leave it. It is a monopoly. Charge what they want. Insurance companies, if they have to compete to offer people what they want to buy, people have the money to make their own decisions, that is going to bring down costs; it is going to provide more choices. If Democrats get their way, premiums are going to keep going up. Insurance companies are going to continue to collect big checks from taxpayers directly into their bank accounts, and there will be no reforms to stop the fraud. And there is plenty of fraud. The Government Accountability Office has found it. It has been headlined in papers, including the Washington Post this morning. Yet the Democrats come to the floor and say: Nope, $83 billion right out the door right to the insurance companies. And that is their solution for a failed ObamaCare healthcare. Look, we need to empower families to make their own decisions. People get it at home that Obamacare has failed the American taxpayers. People know they want the care they need from a doctor they choose at a price they can afford. They are not going to get that with ObamaCare. I yield the floor.